Sri Aurobindo has said, “All Yoga is nothing, but psychology.” The truth of this statement came home to me in search of how to live a balanced life both personal and professional; inner and outer. It brought me to some valuable key concepts of Indian philosophy like dharma, artha, kama and their role in human life. It forced me to also think of moksha and its meanings. What is liberation and freedom? Also freedom from what? Is it possible to be liberated on earth? What is the balance between the pursuit of the material and the spiritual?
In this context, the question arose what are the values that lead one to fearless action but with the inner being situated in peace and serenity. What is the meaning karma or action? What are the motivating forces and what is the impact of one’s actions? It brings to the fore a world view that we are all interconnected although appear to be isolated, like islands in an ocean are connected to each other by land at the bottom of the ocean. There is a common Self behind all which is Brahman.
It also shows that all human attributes are interrelated but each has its own place and value. One cannot be privileged one over the other. If, for example, the pursuits of pleasure or wealth are given too low or too high a value, they would be negated and does violence to one’s own self. Therefore one can never be careless either about dharma or about material prosperity and pleasure. Neither can be followed individually and no human pursuit can be divorced from dharma. But what is dharma? It leads one to ideas about self awareness, detachment and self control. It brings in its ambit, issues pertaining to forgiveness and reconciliation, patience, non violence, equanimity, truth, simplicity, control over one’s physical senses, gentleness, modesty, generosity, freedom from anger, contentment and pleasant speech in one’s relationship with oneself and the other. Hence it is not a denial of the world or its relationships but a placing of the self in a joyful interaction with the other.
The exploration of the self brings one to the three aspects of human nature pertaining to Jnana or awareness; desires and emotions or ichcha, and activity or kriya. All three have to be perfected. Therefore, the goal is to become fully aware of one’s nature, environment and one’s relation with all beings around oneself. The three yogas of jnana, bhakti and karma have been enunciated in the Gita. It leads to the concept pertaining to man being a microcosm of the macrocosm. This provides the great psychological insight that the only way to understand nature generally and in all its aspects is to know man completely – the conscious, the vast unconscious and the infinite supraconscious – all lying within.
The paper will explore some of these issues.
(Kavita A Sharma)
Summarizing the attributes or lakshanas of dharma. Chaturvedi, Badrinath, categories them into two: in relation to one’s own self and in relation to others. The former consists of Satya or Truth, which includes tapas and brahmacharya or austerity and sexual continence; dama or self control; Shaucha or purity; Arjava or lack of deviousness, hri or endurance; achapalam or resoluteness of character; and dana or giving and sharing.
In relation to the others, the aspects of dharma are ahimsa or non violence,; samata or attitude of equality; Shanti or peace and tranquility, anrashansayam or lack of aggression and cruelty; and amatsara or absence of envy. The two facets of dharma are interconnected. And after elaborating on all the complexities of understanding relating to dharma,Mahabharata provides a simple straightforward and universally applicable answer. Bhishma tells Yudhishthira that whatever is obtained from being agreeable and loving to all is the distinguishing mark of dharma.
Second, moksha in Mahabharata is not seen as a denial of relationships whatever be the theories in philosophical systems. It shows that moksha is just as relational as dharma is. Freedom is an affirmation of relationships, not a denial. Therefore, Mahabharata concentrates on the lakshanas or the characteristics of a person who has achieved moksha. True freedom brings the self in a joyful relationship with the other rather than in a denial of interaction. Also, just as the desire of an individual leads to acts and acts to bondage, which bind him aloneso also freedom from them would also be only for, the individual. But a free man, being free, or because of that very freedom devotes himself to the other. Also, only one who has understood and mastered one’s self, can truly reach out to the other. Paradoxically, it is only through relationships with others, that one gains an awareness of the self. Therefore, self knowledge and self mastery makes one reach out to others but is not a prior condition.
Further, Mahabharata insist that those truths of human life that were manifest, were empirical and easily verifiable in the common experience of men and women, were independent of any particular religious faith or philosophical positions. For example, even if a person rejected the idea of rebirth the truth about the nature of the relationship of the self with the other did not change. Its foundation would still have to be in dharma, truth and non violence. Even if the entire karma theory was rejected the psychological correspondence between acts and thoughts and its impact on us would still remain true. Therefore, dharma or the foundation of relationships is not derived from any philosophical or religious belief. It consists of trust, care, love and truth. These may also be religious ideas but above all they are dharma and provide moksha or freedom in this life here and now.
What are the characteristics of a free person? Any person goes through various stages in life. At an earlier stage of life, he has enlightened self interest and enjoys the pleasures of his senses moderately because indulgence would be harmful. He has learnt to face success and failure without being either too jubilant or to disheartened because the former produces egoism and the latter, the loss of will to exert and act. He has learnt not to grieve at the death of his relatives because to do so would be futile. He has also learnt not to repent for the past as that is useless. He has learnt to distinguish between friend and enemy but believes at the same time that neither friendship nor enmity is permanent. One changes into the other with shifting self interest. He lives a full life devoting himself to material prosperity, pleasure and dharma together. In all circumstances he has self discipline and balance.
The state of moksha, however goes beyond all this. It is a state of complete desirelessness and, therefore acts are done without motive or interest. It is niskama karma. Since motive binds the doer, disinterested acts do not count as acts in the logic of karma. It is consciousness and not the act that is the decisive factor. Therefore, moksha is a state of a radically different consciousness which is illumined by knowledge. A person who has attained moksha has freed himself from the polarities of pleasure pain, attraction- aversion, happiness-sorrow, love-hate, praise-denigration and others between which the human drama takes place.
There are three features of a free person as enumerated in the Ashwamedhika Parva. He has risen above the play of opposites. Physically he may experience heart of cold but they do not assail his consciousness. He fears no one and creates conditions for others also to be free from fear. He perceives the oneness of all human beings and so works ceaselessly for the good of others so that they are enhanced, enriched, sustained and held together. But freedom is also necessarily not just in relation to the other but also in relation to one’s self and bondage is created by one’s ignorance and wrong understanding of who one is. So freedom also lies within oneself. From this it follows that self understanding is the clearest path to human freedom. It is not something esoteric. It is achieved gradually by reflecting upon one’s relations with human realities. The experiential world is a chain of samsara or a series act-consequence-act. It is logical to snap this chain in this life itself by emptying the consciousness of all conceivable opposites. Such a state is moksha. It is neither negative nor positive, neither good nor bad. First one has to take a step that takes one beyond the polarities and having done that the very faculty of renunciation has to be renounced so that there is not even an awareness that something has been renounced.
Three questions arise naturally. First, if opposites are inherent in life, why should one seek freedom from them because that would mean freedom from life itself. Also can there really be freedom from something that is inherent in reality itself. Second, is it psychologically possible to get that freedom even if it was essential. And third, is such a freedom only a logical construct in the process of the exploration of the concept of freedom. For the first question, it is experientially true that going beyond the fluctuating and uncertain workings of the opposites is required for one’s own mental health. Since today I may be acclaimed and tomorrow I may be decried, I have to rise above both for my own self. Otherwise I would be condemned to swinging between attraction and aversion where one can quickly change into the other.
Another aspect of the vitality of Indian culture is its catholicity by which “mutually contradictory creeds can and do keep house together without quarrel within the wide and hospitable Hindu family.” “Hindu thought …. because of its ingrained inclusiveness, its tolerance, and its indifference to doctrinal divergences, stressed the essential unity of all Indian Dharmas, whether Hindu or Buddhist and minimized differences.” This all inclusiveness is stated in various tenets. For example, the Yogavashishtha says: “ All the diverse doctrines and paths originating at different times and in different centuries, however, lead ultimately to the same Supreme Truth, like the many different paths leading travelers from different places to the same city. It is ignorance of the Absolute Truth and misunderstanding of the different doctrines that cause their followers to quarrel in bitter animosity with one another. They consider their own particular dogmas and paths to be the best, as every traveler may think, though wrongly, his own path to be the only and the best path.” Every seeker is encouraged to find his own path freely. The Yogavashishtha says: “ The method by which a man makes spiritual progress is the best for him. He should not change it for another, which may not look right to him, nor please him, nor be useful to him. An example of this liberal adjustment is “ The ultimate reality is called Sunya (nothing) by the Nihilist, Brahman by the Vedantist, Purusha by the Sankhya philosophers, Ishwara by the followers of the Yoga school, Shiva by the Shaivas. Time by those who believe it to be time, self by those who take it to be the Self, Not self by the those who do not believe Self to be the ultimately real thing. Something between being and non-being by the Madhyamikas, and the “All” by those who think so.” So really the prayer is to the ultimate power behind and pervading the universe, by whatever name called and comprehended.
This acceptance has been articulated as Anekanta Veda in Jainism according to which reality and every expression if it has innumerable aspects and every thinker views it from one or the other aspect. Therefore, his view and judgment about the same object are bound to differ from those of others who see reality from another angle of vision. A corollary of this is the doctrine of Syadvada which means restraint or caution in making judgments. It is important to remember that our judgments can only be partial truths and not absolute truths.
Indian culture differs from the West in that it sees man as the microcosm of the whole. Therefore it places emphasizes the an understanding of the nature of man and his relations with other beings in the universe and with the universe as whole. Man is seen as a part of and also a product of nature. That is why Nature must be appreciated through man because he can be most aware of its reality through an awareness of what is within him. Science including modern psychology cannot give us a knowledge of the real nature of man because it only deals with the physical, chemical, physiological and biological reactions of the human body. It avoids all reference to the soul, the mind and consciousness which it cannot observe, measure and record. Hence for modern science, a human being becomes nothing more than a “reaction mass”. So, although scientific knowledge is extremely useful it not only ignores man’s deeper nature but shuts it out. This is harmful because it then tends to deny its existence and leaves no room to even consider its needs. This, perhaps, accounts for the growing dissatisfaction with modern life in spite of the best material possessions among those who have a deeper awareness. It can be seen in the rise of new age religions, concepts and philosophies.
Indian psychologists like modern psychologists accept that man shares many natural traits with animals whose behaviour is motivated by instructs. These instinctive ways are called pravrittis or drives. But unlike the animals,man has the power of discrimination and control called the buddhi or intelligence. Buddhi enables man not only to discriminate between proper and improper exercise of natural propensities, but to also strengthen some and weaken the others, and delay the satisfaction of some others. A man who lives by momentary and unorganized passions, behaves like an animal. Man stands in between animals and gods and by his conduct can either rise or fall.
The Three Aspects of Human Nature
Indian thinkers have put forward various ideals to suit diverse men and women and worked out the processes to reach them in the minutest details. But underlying them all is discipline or Yoga. Sri Aurobindo would say, all yoga is nothing but psychology. So that attempt is not to impose rigid codes of conduct but to work through human psychology and integrated personality towards the higher ideals placed before man.
According to Indian psychologists, human consciousness has three main aspects: awareness or jnana, desires and emotions or ichcha, and activity or kriya. They correspond to what modern psychologists call cognition, affection or desire and action. All three have to be perfected. A perfected man is one who has become fully aware of his nature, his environment and his relation with all beings around him. He has control over his desires and passions, acts rightly under all circumstances and so does not have to repent over his actions. Processes for perfecting each aspect of man have been given. That which widens his consciousness is jnana-yoga or yoga of knowledge. That which brings control over his desires and emotions by sublimating them is called bhakti yoga or the yoga of devotion. That which trains a person him in righteousness and disinterested performance of duty is called karma-yoga or the yoga of action. This is the triune path also explained in the Gita.
The Indian saints realized that man was a microcosm of the macrocosm. Therefore, the only way to understand nature generally and in all its aspects was to know man completely through the various processes of yoga. The yogas did not advocate a dependence only on sensory observation but refined and perfected the processes of introspection, intuition and Samadhi or mystic experience. Through them they explored both the vast unconscious and the infinite superconscious strata of being lying within them. It made them realize that man was the centre of a circle whose circumference was nowhere, i.e. it was infinite. They also realized that in his deeper nature he was one and identical with the deepest and ultimate spirit that holds, supports, sustains and pervades the universe. What appears as a human being is only a very small part of him. In his ultimate essence he is one with the essence of the world.
The Upanishads state this unequivocally, when they propound that “ This self is the Absolute Reality.” ( ayam atma Brahma) or “ I am the Absolute ( Ahma Brhama asmi); or “Thou art that,” ( Tat twam asi); or “ Everything is the Absolute” ( Servan khalu idam Brahma). Not only man, say the Indian seers, but also all things and creatures in the universe are rooted in one and the same absolute reality which is spiritual in essence. We cannot describe the nature of this essence because our terms are inadequate. The only thing we can say about it is that it is infinite or ananta, awareness or consciousness that is jnanam and characterized by bliss or ananda. According to the Yogavashistha,and other texts the nature of the absolute reality cannot be satisfactorily talked about or discussed. It can only be experienced within the depths of one’s own being . And that which we experience in the deepest stratum of our being is that which “cannot (be) expressed in words, what cannot be even indirectly indicated, what cannot be named, and what is not the object of any of our senses.” “ It is neither a being , nor a non-being , nor anything between the two. It is nothing yet everything. It cannot be grasped by mind and expressed in words. It is empty of all possible contents, yet is the deepest of all enjoyments.
This limitless and eternal being is perpetually manifest in the world and its processes by its own internal and inherent urge. It expresses itself in the form of the infinite many without losing its basic unity. It allows birth, growth, decay and death to take place without experiencing any one of the changes within itself. The most common word for the absolute in India in Brahman. The search for the Brahman and the effort to experience it within oneself is the main pursuits of Indian philosophy.
Interconnectedness of Being
If all individuals and beings are rooted in the same Brahman, they must all necessarily be interconnected although apparently isolated on the surface, like islands in an ocean are connected to each other by land at the bottom of the ocean. There is a common Self behind all which is Brahman. The Yogavashishatha says, “How can the thought that some one is one’s brother and another is not hold good when there is one and the same all-pervading Self present in all of us? O Ram, beings of all species are your brothers, as there is no being who is unconnected with you.” The Isha Upanishad, one of the oldest Upanishads, has similarly stated, “Whosoever beholds all beings in the same Self and the same Self in all beings does not hate anybody. When a man knows that all beings are ultimately the Self and realizes this unity in experience, then there remains no delusion or grief for him.”
Nature of a Human Being and the Cosmos
Long ago, Indian psychologists discovered that man in living his life from day to day passes through several types of experiences. Three types are known to everyone though not understood properly – the waking experience, the dream and the deep sleep.
In the waking experience our consciousness works in the realm of the physical body, physical senses and in relation to physical objects. The theoretical and practical sciences deal with it. But we do not live in the physical realm alone. For some hours we go to the realm of dreams. In this state, our world of objects, our bodies and our personalities are more or less the creations of our minds with no relation to our waking experience. Even the time and space of the physical order are not retained. While the dreaming physical body stays on the bed, it has the experience of traveling far and wide and coming into contact with a different nature of reality with the dream body and senses. An unhealthy or a miserable person may see himself as quite the opposite in his dreams. But in experiencing these two states there is something in us which is essentially the same. Otherwise we would not be able to say that the experiences of both the states, however divergent are our own. The experiences of both the states belong to us and we remember one in the other.
Then there is a third state which we all experience at some time during the our existence of twenty-four hours of the day. It is the state of deep sleep which we enjoy and which is very important for our health. In it we are conscious of nothing. Mind, senses, body, and even personality together with all sorts of mental and physical objects pass out of our experience. Yet something keeps awake that knows that in this state of deep sleep we know nothing. In effect, there is something that remains essentially the same between the three states of waking, dreaming, and sleeping and it is that which remembers the experience of both dream and sleep in the waking world.
Occasionally we are lifted into state of forgetfulness of both mental and physical objects and are in a momentary experience the joy of truth, goodness and beauty. These are rare moments in which we experience bliss or Ananda from which we do not wish to return. However, such moments are short-lived. These are times of heightened consciousness in which come flashes of rare intuitive insights into the ultimate Reality.
Theory of Karma